Sunny Days & Flowers

 

This story begins with my attempt to bring nature into the classroom. The vase of fresh cut flowers (which you may remember from our intake interview) sat at the atelier until they started to wilt. Inevitably, their time was up. Wait. I could still salvage the sunflowers! And so they sat; with heads that were beginning to sag, at the nature table. Coupled with blank paper and chunky pastels, the "provocation" emerged. And the children came...

 

 

My interpretation of a "provocation" is an inviting presentation of materials, to which there is no exact or predetermined outcome. It is an invitation.

 

To play.

To explore.

To observe.

To create.

 

And the children were curious.  They were already drawn toward the flowers that had sat there in my pottery mug. When they saw the blank paper and the pastels on display in my wooden thrift store find, they asked me if they could use them. Absolutely! Pull up a chair. Get comfortable. I casually asked questions to draw their attention to parts of the plant and colours observed. Without any instruction, they got to "work".

 

"I see straight lines and curved lines,"

 observed one child, making a connection to the form drawing that they had practiced earlier.

"I chose these colours to make it look pretty. Like a real one."

 

"I had to make spaces when making the leaves (petals),"

remarked another child indicating their observation and developing spatial sense.

 

One child observed a few petals drop to the table when it got knocked. The artist then touched them and asked if they could put them on the picture. Absolutely! How could you do that? And so the glue sticks made their appearance at the table. I remembered a part bottle of "old school" yellow glue in the cupboard and we used it instead, with a paint brush to help with the process. 

 

"This looks like a sunflower. The petals make it nice and neat."

 

This artist didn't feel that their picture was complete, and wanted something to glue onto their work. There weren't any petals available at the time. Hmmm? What could we use? Aha. A jar of sunflower seeds "magically" appeared. What are these? Discussion ensued, and the picture evolved. Petals were added the following day, when more had dropped from their sagging heads. Mixed media and 3-dimensional art is emerging from this artist without direct instruction!

 

For me, this is a reminder that the children are not "empty vessels" waiting to be filled with knowledge and wonder. They are naturally curious about the world around them, and their knowledge is expanded upon through joyful and meaningful experiences.

 

We read a story about the life cycle of the sunflower, and the children have shared their sunflower "sightings". I look forward to adding more of their pictures and documenting their learning on our bulletin board. Right now, I'm off to Home Hardware to get a bag of sunflower seeds....

 

If you have (or acquire) a large sunflower head that you could send in (once the flowers/seeds dry), I'm betting that the children would love to try their hand at extracting the seeds, and observing the beauty of another variety of sunflower.

 

Thank you for dropping by and visiting the atelier!